LOCAL JOBLESS RATE DROPS TO 8%

Unemployment rate now at lowest level since December 2008

Thousands of job seekers returned to San Diego County’s labor force in February as the county’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in more than four years.

Employers across the county added 9,800 people to their payrolls, the biggest jump from a January since 2002. The jobless rate dropped to 8 percent in February, its lowest since it was 7.4 percent in December 2008.

“This is fabulous,” said Phil Blair, CEO of staffing agency Manpower San Diego. “People are out. They see these sort of numbers and they get energized and they should. If you’re serious about a job search, this should be your wake-up call.”

The data released Friday by the Employment Development Department shows a continuing downward trend in the county’s jobless rate, which was 9.4 percent a year ago.

“This is a sign that the local economy is in pretty good shape in terms of growth,” said Alan Gin, economist at the University of San Diego. “We’re still a long way from where we need to be. We were down so much that even good growth leaves us still in a bad situation, but it’s not as bad.”

The county unemployment rate, which was 8.6 percent in January also dropped for the right reason — the number of people in the labor force grew by 11,500, while the number of people who said they were unemployed fell by 9,400. In some past months, the jobless rate fell because the labor force got smaller — people who aren’t looking for a job are not counted as unemployed.

That wasn’t the case in February.

“More people were encouraged to look for work and more people found jobs,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. Business has been picking up, but employers like Diego & Sons Printing in Barrio Logan remain cautious about ramping up hiring. Betty Aguilera, who co-founded Diego & Sons with her husband in 1972, said customers are beginning to order prints in bulk, such as a three-month supply instead of a one-month supply. That said, Diego & Sons — which added three full-time employees to its staff of 17 last year — isn’t ready to keep expanding just yet.

“We just want things to level off and stay in that position so that we are more confident that we don’t have to lay these people off,” Aguilera said, noting Diego & Sons laid off six to eight people during the height of the downturn, which she said was the worst the business has endured in its 40 years.

Some hiring is picking up, as shown in the tourism industry, which led February’s gain by adding 3,300 jobs.

Most of that gain came in the restaurant industry, which added 2,100 jobs.

“That is a good sign of increasing wealth since it is discretionary spending. And it is one of San Diego’s largest employment sectors,” said Kelly Cunningham, economist at the National University System Institute for Policy Research. “Only a portion of restaurant employment is due to visitors, most are actually local population serving.”

Business for hotels generally picks up in mid-January, said Robert Rauch, who owns and manages several local hotel properties. Rauch started hiring in January, although many may have not started until Feb. 1. He said he made the decision to hire earlier based on his projections of a good year.

Reaser called Friday’s jobs report encouraging. She said even adjusting for the seasonal increase in tourism jobs that county employers brought in an additional 6,500 workers. She noted a widespread gain, including in manufacturing, despite cutbacks in defense spending due to automatic cuts under sequestration.

“A turnaround in the housing market and higher stock prices are giving San Diego a welcome boost,” she said. “More effects of sequestration are likely to be felt in coming months but hopefully the region will have enough cushion from other parts of the economy to keep it on an upward path.”

California’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 9.6 percent in February after two straight months at 9.8 percent. The national unemployment rate in February was a seasonally adjusted 7.7 percent.

“We need to do this long term in order to really make up for the high unemployment rate because the unemployment rate in California is obviously higher than the nation’s,” said Esmael Adibi, director of the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University.

Adibi said California’s faster pace is partly because it was hit harder during the recession, but also pointed out that the construction sector is up 6.2 percent year-over-year. More construction jobs translates to an economic multiplier effect of trips to places like Home Depot to buy goods for new homes and other buildings, he said.

In Southern California, Orange County has the lowest unemployment rate at 6.5 percent, largely due to Disneyland and related tourism hiring, Adibi said. Imperial County has the highest at 24.2 percent. Los Angeles County has 10.3 percent unemployment.

Adibi said counties like San Diego and Orange benefit from a diverse group of sectors, such as biotech, healthcare and other research and development.